On November 4, Founding Partner Louise Renne was featured on NPR-member station KQED as a panelist in a discussion about the making of contemporary San Francisco.
RPLG Founding Partner Louise Renne.
The discussion, recorded and sponsored by the Commonwealth Club on November 1, focused on the year of 1978 and San Francisco’s development in the following decades. Lincoln Mitchell, moderator, San Francisco native and author of “San Francisco Year Zero: Political Upheaval, Punk Rock and a Third Place Baseball Team,” led the four panelists through an hour-long discussion about baseball, the LGBT community, the city’s punk scene and current housing issues.
“I’m not going to have any friends left by the time this panel is over, because I don’t think there’s been a planning decision made in the past ten years that I’ve been in agreement with,” Ms. Renne quipped to laughs from the audience. “We need to have a deeper conversation and have different people at the table. Where are our neighborhood groups? Most people are so tired from having to commute such long ways that they don’t have time to spend at a planning commission meeting, and that’s a shame.”
The Commonwealth Club of California produces and distributes programs featuring diverse viewpoints from thought leaders
Drawing on her experience as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors from 1978 to 1986 and as San Francisco City Attorney from 1986 to 2001, Ms. Renne provided her perspective on the last four decades of city history. Among other topics, Renne discussed her entry into San Francisco politics, the need for strong neighborhood councils, San Francisco’s cultural leadership, and the difficulty of anticipating and responding proactively to future problems.
Ms. Renne shared the stage with Art Agnos, former member of the California State Assembly and former mayor of San Francisco; Corey Busch, former press secretary to Mayor George Moscone and former senior executive at the San Francisco Giants; and Alvin Orloff, former songwriter for the punk band Jennifer and the Blowdryers and author of “Disasterama! Adventures in the Queer Underground, 1977 to 1997.”
Listen to the podcast here.
About the Commonwealth Club
The Commonwealth Club of California, a non-partisan and non-profit organization, produces and distributes programs featuring diverse viewpoints from thought leaders. The Club’s weekly broadcast, which started in 1924 and is carried on hundreds of stations today, is the oldest in the United States.
About Ms. Renne
Louise Renne is a founding partner of Renne Public Law Group and was previously a founding partner of Renne Sloan Holtzman Sakai Public Law Group. She leads the firm’s public interest litigation. Ms. Renne pioneered the model of public interest plaintiff coalitions comprised of government agencies, individuals, and non-profit organizations during her 16-year tenure as San Francisco City Attorney. She is known for transforming the traditionally defense-oriented practice of municipal law by creating an affirmative litigation program that won significant victories for cities and counties in California.
About RPLG
RPLG practices throughout California, advising and advocating for public agencies, nonprofit entities, individuals and private entities in need of effective, responsive and creative legal solutions